CAM COOK: J-State RB1(?) ⚡️
One of the craziest SOBs in all of CFB is calling plays again; his inventory of former protégés includes the likes of Khalan Laborn and Rasheen Ali. So you know we had to cover this one...
Much that once was is lost. For none now live who remember it.
- Galadriel, LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Picture this: it’s an otherwise lovely Sunday afternoon at one of the VP satellite offices located in Jacksonville, Alabama. In the pigstrodomus war room stand myself, my assistant manager, and several unnamed VP interns.
As usual, I sit at the head of the table. I am silent. Several minutes pass by without a word spoken in the room.
My assistant manager opens the meeting: “Guys, VP is sad.”
The interns look concerned… in fact there were at least two gasps, maybe three. One brave soul speaks up.
“Why?”
Instead of addressing the question directly I let my assistant manager respond:
“This year, CFF drafters are hammering the RB position early. It’s uncanny. They are absolutely cleaning out any potential value there and leaving nothing but scraps in the later mid-round range. It’s gotten so bad that there just isn’t the same high upside asset class at RB available later this year.”
At this point my head is tilted over the table with my hands covering my face, I pause for a moment for dramatic effect and then I emerge, finally breaking my silence—my voice piercing the atmosphere like the Sword of Elendil cutting through Sauron’s hand—sudden, righteous, and with a flair for the theatrical:
What happened to the game I love?
These days, in the later rounds, I find myself taking stabs at players in undecided backfields with a haphazard hope that I’ll eventually get the right one… or worse yet: selecting weak ass RBs who I know won’t get the volume of carries.
I’m not saying every late round RB should be a hit! But what happened to cheap RBs who could still conceivably get 250+ carries? I look at the draft board, I don’t see a lot of options. AHH!
The assistant manager quickly chimes in, a fool’s attempt to play the role of damage control:
“VP, the game’s changing… teams rely on two, three, even four runners now, much more than before…”
“Hogwash.” I reply.
“What do I pay you idiots for? Find me some late round prospects that have gangster upside. Please and thank you!”
As I bark out this command, the VP interns scurry out of the war room like scared goblins in the Mines of Moria. Simultaneously, during this motion, I rotate my office chair 90 degrees so that I am now facing the windows overlooking the Jacksonville State practice field. I’m puffing on a pipe in my hand.
The assistant manager is behind me writing in his handbook. It just so happens that today there is a spring showcase scheduled on the field.
With keen focus I observe as the players work through the drills.
“I recognize this #4 player… where do I know him from?”
My assistant manager replies: “One of your biggest misses last year, VP—Cam Cook, TCU RB. Was supposedly set to be a bell cow in 2024, but he sucked ass and got benched.”
“Oh.”
“…Well he looks better now. Bigger, stronger, faster. Do we know who the OC at Jax State is this year?”
“Yea. Some crazy SOB named Clint Trickett. Apparently he was fired at Marshall a few years ago. How does that even happen?”
Almost instantaneously the hairs on each of my arms raise and my sphincter muscle tightens in a manner that is most uncomfortable.
“I know this name… it is… precious to me; but I do not recall where I know it from.”
I remove myself from the room with great haste and chart a course to the basement where I begin to research in the VP archives. There I find something of great import.
The year 2023 of the Second Age. Here follows the account of VP, the High King of VolumePigs.com, at the finding of the Pig of Power.
“It has come to me, the One Pig. It shall be an heirloom of my Kingdom. All those who follow in my bloodline shall be bound to its fate. It is… precious to me, though I draft it with a great pain.
Concerns I have about durability begin to fade. Hesitation that I am over-drafting based on ADP, which at first was as clear as red flame, has all but disappeared — a secret now that only Clint Trickett can tell.”
By some miracle I then managed to locate within the archives the original monologue—an article written about former Marshall RB Rasheen Ali.
CFF Series - The Return of the King
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
While reading it I shamelessly chuckle at my own joke regarding Coach Trickett, who appears to be referred to as ‘Coach Trick’ in the former article:
Wheels in my head begin to turn; and the memories of the 2022 and 2023 seasons flood my brain all at once.
“Khalan Laborn—300 carry gangster. He was one of mine. So was Rasheen Ali, he had a sick season in 2023…”
With a renewed sense of optimism I return to the war room where I find my assistant manager still aimlessly jotting notes in his silly handbook. I turn to him, eyes wide and buzzing with barely contained excitement, then I say it:
“This is the one pig. Forged by the dark lord Clint Trickett. And a plump pig is never late, nor is he early—he arrives precisely when he means to.”
“What does that mean?”
“I think we found a good thing here…”
Coaching & System
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: NA — OC: 20.41 (half ppr)
Jacksonville State head coach Charles Kelly is a well known man in the Southeastern portion of the U.S., plying his trade on the defensive side of the ball at stops including Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and Florida State. What he’s not well known for, is calling plays on offence.
That’s where the aforementioned Clint Trickett comes in. Trickett has been a favourite of mine ever since I saw him featured on the Netflix show “Last Chance U” when he was the QBs coach at East Mississippi Community College. He then spent three seasons as the TEs coach at FAU, and was promoted to co-OC/QBs coach in 2020.
A year spent as the WRs coach at Marshall in 2021 preceded what would become the most notable seasons for our discussion today. Trickett took over as OC at Marshall during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
In late 2022, Rasheen Ali, who was a breakout bell cow in 2021, was announced as likely to miss the entire season. This surprise announcement created an opportunity for those of us fortunate enough to scoop up former five star and FSU transfer Khalan Laborn. Laborn turned out to be a phenomenal CFF asset that season—even more so because he came virtually free of charge.
In 2023, Laborn graduated and Ali returned. Ali had himself a successful CFF season, which marked the third straight year at Marshall with a 1000+ yard rusher, and four out of the last four full seasons dating back to 2019.
This does raise the question: how much of the patterns under Trickett during 2022-23 are due to him, versus how much influence is coming from former Thundering Herd head coach Charles Huff?
Nonetheless, we can only evaluate the numbers we have before us, and these numbers are good. In the two seasons that Trickett called plays at Marshall, the RB1s handled approximately 50% of the team carry share. In 2022, the play calling split was 62% run plays, while in 2023 the split was almost perfectly balanced at 51% run plays. Both teams averaged around 24-25 seconds per play.
Cam Cook (5’11, 195)
2024 RUSHING STATS: 119 - 460 - 9 (9.7 PPG)2
The rising junior Cook appeared primed to be the next Sonny Dykes bellcow at TCU last season. With Emani Bailey moving on, there was a sizeable production vacancy to fill and quotes out of fall camp were very positive. Unfortunately things didn’t work out as planned.
Things started off well. Cook took 20 carries for 81 yards and a score vs. Stanford. He followed that up with an even better performance vs. LIU with three scores. His input volume over the next three weeks was actually pretty solid when combining carries and receptions, but his outputs started to fizzle.
By October he became a dead CFF asset and outside of a surprise two score performance vs. OKST he was not a serviceable option in any CFF format going forward.
Cook’s receiving usage was interesting. He had a game with eight(!) targets, and others of five and four, but never surpassed 22 yards receiving in a game. He caught most of his passes so it wasn’t a situation of low completion rate. Overall, I’d say he just struggled with the ball in his hands at the P4 level.
So, hopefully at a lower level in the Conference USA this player can be more effective.
Unfortunately, I’ve already seen that the price on Cook is rising in bestball drafts. Well known analyst and friend of the show @FFChris recently took him in the 13th round of a draft I was in. In another draft I did with
, Cook was selected in the 11th round. Prior to these two drafts I had not seen him selected in the top 20 rounds. A draft I participated in during March had him going in the 28th round.Which begs the question: what is the the cause of this precipitous rise in ADP? Well, as far as I can tell this tweet probably had something to do with it:
As well as Cook’s performance in the spring showcase. From an article covering Jacksonville State football (and these are real quotes unlike above):
Like star transfer running back Tre Stewart last year, Cook showed Thursday that he likes to run over people.
"I would say that I'm looking to score," Cook said. "So whatever it take to score, that's what I'm going to do. You need to be able to run through contact."
Cook is listed at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds. He said he doesn't want the Gamecocks to have to look for a bigger back in short-yardage situations.
"So, running through contact, making somebody miss, like we need a yard, we need a couple inches," Cook said. "I could do that if we need a big play, and if the team thinks that they want to put that in my hands, I'm going to go do that for the team."
Cook already has impressed Charles Kelly, the Gamecocks’ head coach.
"Cam is very elusive, but he's very powerful," Kelly said. "He can stick his foot in the ground. He's a one-cut runner. And this guy can is fast."
Cook also caught 18 passes for TCU last season.
"He catches the ball great out of the backfield, too," Kelly said. "He's good in pass protection and I think that's a tribute to (running backs coach Max Thurmond), too. He's gotten better in pass protection. He's always been able to catch the ball, but that just makes him a more complete back."
Where is Andrew Paul in all of this? That is a good question and I don’t have the answer currently. There is no mention of him in the article. But as far as I know he still lurks behind the scenes and could just as well turn out to be the RB1 also.
For now, there are (once again) positive reviews from the coaching staff re: Cam Cook in the offseason. We’ve played this game before, though—some players are just better practice players—so we’ll see what happens.
I do like that there is pretty substantial upside given who will be calling plays; for that reason alone he’s worthy of a dart throw in every style of draft until further notice. ◾
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Sample 2018-2024, excluding 2020.
Full ppr.